sunnuntaina, maaliskuuta 20, 2016

Ye olde yarnshoppe

Time to talk about yarnshops!

Considering Tampere is the second biggest city in Finland, it's not that surprising that there is quite a few yarnshops available in addition to the yarnsections in department stores like Sokos and Anttila. The two I tend to favor are Lankaidea and Lankamaailma.

My latest purchase from Lankaidea
3 balls of Schachenmayr Catania which is 100% cotton 
Lankaidea (Yarn idea) is an independent yarnstore which I thought had quit, since it closed its store in the city centre some time ago, but luckily I was wrong. It's back on the same street but on a different end. The owner often seems a bit tired and stressed at first glance (which I'm not surprised at, it seems she's the only one working there and being an entrepreneur isn't easy), but she's really kind, helpful and chatty once you start talking to her. There is plenty of the more regular yarns (Schachenmayr, Drops etc) but also some of the rarer kinds of yarns.

Lankamaailma (Yarnworld) is actually a chain, and they have stores in Oulu (my hometown, yay), Turku and Helsinki in addition to the one here in Tampere. It's not in the city centre, but its quite easy to get to by buss which goes from the central square roughly about every 10minutes. This one has less of the rarer kind of yarnbrands, but it still offers a lot of variety to those who are bored with Novita (which is probably the most commonly used yarn in Finland, since it's very easily available in larger supermarkets and department stores)

The other two yarnshops I know of here are Kerä and Merletto. I've only been to Kerä (Ball [of yarn]) twice. The first time was when they were in another location in the city, and the second time was just this week. So far I can't say that I particularly dislike Kerä, but I do feel like there are other yarnshops I like better. Based on their web page and online store they have more of the rarer kinds of yarn (at least the type I rarely see). Merletto has a good selection of yarn, too, but I'm not particularly fond of it, since the personnel seem to be a bit... well, not unfriendly, but I feel like they're almost bored or less-than-happy to be there and I rarely get a smile out of them. Customer service is an essential part of my job, so that means a lot to me.

I also got to go to Titityy in Jyväskylä this Friday while finally going to say Hi to a friend of mine. I actually wasn't aware of this shop until recently, though it's not really suprising since I'd never proprely visited Jyväskylä. But I heard that they're having a knitting festival this summer (mid July) with quite a lot of handicrafts courses. I bought a ticket to a course by Veera Välimäki from their online store and I'm quite excited to be going! I imagine it might be just about the first day I get to myself after I've had my baby and to spend it learning more about shawl making from Veera Välimäki sounds just heavenly! I also ordered some yarn from them last week, which arrived on Tuesday.

The visit to Titityy was lovely. The building in itself was so gorgeous, because it was an old wooden house surrounded by other old wooden houses. My guess is that the buildings have been a family home, with cows and lambs and separate buildings for the maids and farmworkers and so on, until the early 20th century. One of these buildings had been converted into the yarnstore, and it really was lovely. I can think of no other word for it. I was also impressed with the variety of yarn they had, since most of them were the type I have rarely seen in other stores. The staff were really friendly and helpful, and I really feel like I could sometimes go to Jyväskylä just because of that shop.

I've also visited a few yarnstores in other countries as well, but I think I'll save those for another post with pictures of what I've made with yarns bought from them.

How's the diet? Oh gawd, don't even ask... I bought some Novita-yarn on tuesday, then I've visited Kerä and Titityy, so I've bought 1kg of yarn this week alone. Will be working hard to get back to "shape" as of right now...

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